UCLA's national student assessment center expands reach with new partnership

Office of Media Relations |
March 26, 2013

UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is being tapped by a federally funded consortium developng new educational assessments for students in nearly half the states in the U.S., including California.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium recently voted to establish an affiliation with CRESST, which is part of UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and is widely recognized as one of the premier educational assessment and research centers in the nation.

CRESST will provide the consortium with access to research, psychometric expertise and administrative services. The new agreement advances UCLA and GSE&IS goals of supporting K–12 education on a national scale.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Smarter Balanced is developing an assessment system for mathematics and English language arts and literacy aligned with common core state standards.

CRESST conducts research and development on accountability systems, learning and assessment practices, and educational policies. The center also designs technology-based systems and evaluates a broad number of educational programs and methods, with the central goal of improved achievement for all students and trainees and reductions of inequities and costs.